The Google Chrome Dev channel has been updated to 5.0.360.4 for Windows and Mac and 5.0.360.5 for Linux.

This release includes:

An integrated Adobe Flash Player Plug-in. We're integrating Adobe Flash Player 10.1.51.95 (10.1 beta 3) with Google Chrome so that you don't have to install it or worry about keeping it up-to-date. See the blog post on the Chromium blog for more details.

To use the bundled Flash Player plug-in, add --enable-internal-flash to your command line or shortcut for starting Google Chrome.

A basic plug-in manager. The about:plugins page now lets you disable any plug-in from loading on all web pages. See the Known Issues section: this doesn't work in all cases yet if you already have Adobe Flash Player for Windows Firefox, Safari, or Opera installed.

Known Issues:

On Windows, if you have Adobe Flash Player for Windows Firefox, Safari, or Opera installed, the Flash plug-in will still work in some cases even if you decline the license agreement (when using --enable-internal-flash) or disable the Flash plugin from about:plugins. We're working on it.

If you disable (or enable) a plugin on about:plugins, your change does not take effect until you restart Google Chrome.

84 comments
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I already have 10.0.45.2 installed on my computer. I enabled the internal flash and was prompted to accept the license agreement. According to the about:plugins, 10.0.45 is still enabled. Do I have to disable this myself or do nothing? Which plugin is being used to play flash, 10.1 or 10.0.45?

Personaly I think it was a horrible idea. I hope you will handle all the security holes around Acrobat Reader and Flash. Please make sure it is convenient to disable and also easy replace with a different FP version. (for example Flash Player Debugger version)

This is great news. Flash has always been lacking decent integration into the browser. Once a Flash object has focus, all native browser functions like text search, right-clicking, page back & forward etc become inactive. We need to bring this native browser functionality back. Ideally Flash (and any plug-in object) should be transparent to the user, so unless you dive into the web page source code, you wouldn’t know it’s Flash. And as well, I’d hope we can move past using the ugly object HTML tags and have better ways of integrating Flash content into our pages.

Just for the record, I realize you're just including the existing Adobe software in your binary bundle, and that there's no significant change for folks, other than hopefully flash gets updated regularly.

What I object to is (a) including a big blob of horrid code in the bundle and (b) further promotion of flash to end users.

If you told me you were including an open source limited flash interpreter that was peer reviewed and not a total pig, I wouldn't have these objections.

Adobe has a 64 bit flash player for linux... its v10.0, not 10.1, but it would be nice to know where to drop the .so file so we can pretend to go along with teh 32bit users until Adobe gets off their fat ass and releases a 10.1 64 bit build!!#@#@^@#%^$#$!^$#

For amalkin11's benefit. I assume your on Windows. If you don't already have a Chrome desktop icon make one then right click, hit properties and add a space and --enable-internal-flash to the end of the Target box before hitting apply. From here you can delete your old icon and drag to your quick-launch/taskbar if you like.

I can't give an as sharp "yes" or "omg no!" reply as most here as for Flash, because I *do* use Flash although I don't like it. And for everyone who use Flash and don't have an agenda against it, this IS a good move. There are both performance and security benefits, if you were going to use Flash anyway. It's however obviously a bad move if you don't prefer to have Flash installed. I think these users are in minority though. So it perhaps becomes a question of whether Google should include an option to disable built-in Flash for this vocal minority.

First, Chrome's update technology, which we can use to address security holes, can now be used to update Flash much more quickly and easily, dramatically reducing the vulnerability window _and_ the amount of user effort required.

Second, this will eventually enable Flash to be protected by Chrome's sandbox. Today, someone with a Flash exploit can compromise you, and the only course of action is to disable Flash -- _if_ the exploit is known. By contrast, holes in WebKit don't automatically compromise you because attackers still need to escape the sandbox. This model is far safer for users.

I agree with the posters before - including Flash is a horrible idea. If I want Flash, I can still download it. But it is mostly obsolete with HTML5. And it is primarily a source of security flaws and unwanted ads, so I typically disable it.

It is a large step backwards. HTML5 is tomorrow, including video and audio, and Flash was yesterday.

Great idea - like the sandbox integration. The only thing that is stopping me from doing this is the lack of clarity of how we would run the Flash Player Debug version. Perhaps another command line argument?

1) In the previews, add a slide for new tab. At the moment, (while the window is minimized)to open a tab, one needs 3 clicks -1) on the chrome icon, 2) any of the tabs, and 3) new tab switch. A new tab slide will reduce these steps and improve usability

2) Add a double click action which will restore the window on the desktop. Now, this takes two clicks. - 1) On the chrome icon, 2) the desired tab. Most of the time I just need to restore to the last tab I was working on before minimizing the window.

Note: I don’t know if this is the right place to post this. If not, do overlook this

its amazing that after reading all the comments, no one has come to the conclusion that I think explains why Google is doing this......

THEY ARE TURNING BROWSER PLUGINS INTO EXTENSIONS.

Your going to more than likely see an extensions-type site for browser plugins further down the road, where anyone, Adobe will be first, can offer plugins to the browser that add functionality. NaCl will more than likely be one of these types of apps, possibly Java as well.

If anything, Google is not giving Flash an added boost, they are actually putting it in the back seat where browser plugins should live, not as part of the operating system. As a linux user, I enjoy the fact that a single command can update every piece of software on my system. I've come to enjoy this as well with Firefox addons, and now Chrome extensions. I think putting browser plugins in the same category was only the next logical step and Team Mozilla will most likely follow suite.

It's not so bad, but I am afraid that it can be bad for the HTML5 future. Afaik, the Chrome extensions are open source, but Chrome plugins, like most of the Firefox extensions - not open source. Also each proprietary component is a legal problem.

I decided to un-install the Flash Player from Windows Vista 32 and just rely on the Google Flash Plug-in extension - knowing that it will automatically be updated when a new release is available.

If you hate Flash, then by all means block it - but so many sites are using it - why not just use it until HTML5 is a good replacement or get use to empty flash windows on your web pages when blocking it.

I honestly dont understand why people are freaking out so much. Everyones acting like this will change chrome forever. simply go to about:plugins and disable flash. simply as that, its just like they never integrated it. whats the problem?

The flash integration is going to come down to two things:1. does it make Flash run faster, stabler, smoother?2. Does it (hopefully) not affect Chrome's performance at all.

All I can say right now is that this (Mac 360.4) build sucks. Its driving me back to the beta.

I can't scroll down a page until long long moments after a page as loaded. The same with closing a tab, sitting here hitting cmd-w like an asshole and the tab just sits there, laughing at me...

Some websites go direct to the sad folder.

Help me out here. I want to like Chrome. And don't judge it on the performance of Dev builds, but the beta has its issues also.

Instead of driving the development of Chrome over the cutting edge with innovations like integrating Flash into the browser, please please please make sure the browser works, works well, works fast, and works solid.

A move that causes controversy, love it! Put my vote in the 'for' column, I may be biased as a Flash developer, but anyone thinking that Flash is a dying technology has clearly not developed any large scale rich, interactive web applications. HTML5 is nowhere near the level that Flash can provide and wont be for many years, there IS a great need for better Flash support and I'm glad Google are the only company with the sense to see that.

Benj: There have been more than a few security exploits in Flash made all the more scary by their cross-browser nature. Hence why this is so important for Google to help users keep up-to-date on security patches.

Saying Flash is "more powerful" is like saying a salmon is "more powerful" than a person because people (generally) can't swim upstream. It's a meaningless comparison because they have different strengths and weaknesses.

HTML5 video right now is a lot faster than Flash video since Flash works entirely in software, while no such restriction is placed on HTML5 video allowing for speed (depends on how the browser implements it of course). Thankfully Adobe is FINALLY implementing hardware acceleration though they are years late imo. Flash can be used to make games and such, though you can use JS and Canvas too Flash has the advantage of being cross-browser compatible (for the time being) and it's easier to do some stuff such as play sounds and music. I don't know much about Flash coding though so I can't make a prediction about which method will come out on top.

I trongly support flash integration. For the vast majority of users who already had the flash plugin installed it will save them the hassle of having to update it, and reduce the risk of them being the target of an security attack. I have already uninstalled the flash plugin, as Chrome is my main browser.

The small minority who doesn't want to use flash (which I can perfectly understand in some cicumstances) just has to disable the extension (or rather not enable it for now, but I assume it will soon be enable by default).

stop crying over flash and html5... flash got auto-update feature, so what? i would be concerned more about browser security than plugin security... + if you stop visitin porn sites, you will be more secure :D :P

and to all flash haters... there is FLEX which is OPEN SOURCE and which can do much more then bloody hmtl! If you think flash is only for video, it's like saying you got car in garage just to make your neighbour envy.. does your hmtl5 got GPU accelleration? multitouch? same rendering on all platforms???!!? how quick you can make RIA in hmtl and how quick in flash??? so please wake up...

and if you really think flash will die, go to http://www.openscreenproject.org/partners/ and ask yourself.. are those companies behind flash goin to die??? cisco? intel? disney? :DDD i think not...

What's with all the Flash hate? First of all, what Google is doing is bigger than Flash. What they're doing is making a sandbox and a set of APIs that plugins can use so that they can better integrate with Chrome. Flash is simply the first plugin that they're trying it with. So you hate Flash, great. But what if a new plugin comes out tomorrow that takes the world by storm? What Google is setting up now will still benefit any other plugins, both present and future.

As far as the security problems, why throw something away when millions of people already have the technology on their computer? Like other users have said, this would place Flash into a sandbox that would add extra protection around it. There is also the added update functionality. But then imagine if Flash were to use the Native Client features so that it could have amazing performance on a browser.

I think the most important thing to keep in mind with all of this is that it takes vision. Vision to image what does not exist yet but could. I don't think Google and Adobe are just thinking about integrating the current version of Flash and call it a done deal. If they have vision, and I think they do, they will take this to a whole new level that we haven't seen, or most likely even imaged yet. Everyone is yelling about bugs and security whole, but nobody is saying that Flash isn't capable (or at least doesn't have potential) to awesome things (especially if they take advantage of Native Client). So lets support Google for what they do best, doing things nobody else does in ways nobody else does them. I mean come on, it's Google! And if you use Google's services like Gmail and Docs (and I'm guessing you do) then you trust them already. So lets not burn down the bridge before it's built. If you think Google needs to provide better information to our community then that's fine. I'd like questions answered too. But I'm personally excited to see where this can go. Go Google!

First, I LOVE Chrome. So much faster than other browsers. Second, I HATE Flash. Why? 90% of time I do not want all the junk (video, ads, ...). So I use IE or Firefox the 10% I want the Flash content, Chrome the other 90%. So I NEVER want Flash to be on my Chrome. Plus HTML5 is the way to go.Firefox started out streamlined, simple and fast. Over time it got FAT and slower. Please don't do this to Chrome.As a side note, I would love to find a way to disable the "additional plugin is required" -- even a manual edit of an ".INI" file or such (as with Forefox) is fine for users as myself.Thanks again, Chrome Engineering, for a fine Browser. Pls don't fatten it up...Cheers

that's one of the best step taken by adobe flash is not dying at all.i guess most of the people use html and javascript because that's free and they think html 5 can replace flash that's horrible it's like you never see a sea and you are saying oh my swimming pool is bigger than sea.flash will never die.great work google

I like the idea of not having to install Flash Player again every time I install a browser and also keeping it up to date, however I want a debug version of the Flash Player. I understand it's stupid to implement it for everyone, but it would be nice if there is a kind of an option to use the integrated Flash Player Plugin, or the one that I've personally installed and am using on lets say Firefox.

1. The reason Flash eats up CPU and is perceived to have poor performance is because that 95% of the time the most ambitious, rich, animation-heavy content is delivered via Flash. Therefore it's likely to tax your system. Ambitious, animation-heavy HTML5 content will tax your system in exactly the same way. It isn't the runtime, it's the type of content. What's more, inefficiently coded HTML5 content will crash or slow up your browser the same as poorly programmed Flash content will.

2. The reason clients ask for content to be built in Flash is because they need to deliver the most expressive content possible to their customers in the most efficient way possible. Their customers aren't sandle wearing Linux enthusiasts, they're ordinary people who simply enjoy rich experiences in their browser. HTML5 is years and years away from being able to deliver similarly rich content, for similar costs, if ever. Flash now has some very advanced features for expressivity and animation, nothing of the type exists for HTML5 at the moment, and from the look of some of the early HTML5 stuff it has an awful long way to go.

3. The Flash development community is massive, creative, experienced and passionate. This is the 3million+ strong community of experienced guys sitting in jobs right now generating content for commercial clients across the world 24/7. This infrastructure and depth of experience simply doesn't exist at the moment for HTML5. Perhaps HTML5 will catch up, perhaps it won't, but in the mean time it's Google responsibility to support this content, the infrastructure and the end users as completely as possible.

4. The best way for Google to protect users from security flaws in Flash is to more tightly integrate it with the browser and hopefully start work to bring it inside the Chrome sandbox. To not undertake work because of some kind of techno-snobbery is to put users at more risk in the long term.

I must say, even with this integration, I still have chrome crash totally from flash spazzing out and freezing chrome due to excessive memory usage. That is the only thing that has ever given me trouble with Chrome.

Still doesn't work right. Will load, to some extent, but then options within the player are unclickable. It would be nice to be able to reinstall it, in case there are errors, but since it's integrated, it becomes a whole ordeal of uninstalling and reinstalling Chrome with the vain hope that it will work probably once all of Chrome is reinstalled.

Integrated Flash has damaged Acrobat Distiller. Distiller printer now hangs until I kill all gcswf32 processes. I suspect my distiller version needs a down-level version of flash. I need to be able to control Chrome's use of it or not use Chrome :(